Operation: Abominable Snowman

This is the main reason that i hate mass communication media in general (there are quite a few reasons).They’re always looking for news stories, but they rarely get all the facts. And I completely 100% understand that it’s nearly impossible to get all of the facts all of the time, and that there is a balance that has to be met, but it is just so aggravating sometimes.

Basically this guys is a media man, I don’t know if he’s actually a meteorologist or not, but what he’s basically saying is “Yeah it’s hot out there, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before/cant deal with.”And basically saying that todays heat wave is only a 1/6th of 1988’s.

But that’s not the case. At least not as simply as those numbers would lead you to believe.

Yes. the temperature in Iowa today only got up to 99/100 degrees.
Yes. that happens pretty frequently actually.
No. four days of that is not much compared to 22 days three decades ago

BUT

what he, and anyone who happens to go back in the archives of today’s heatwave, fail to notice (probably because they simply dont realize it) is that there is so much more to this heatwave (and others) than just heat.

Heat indexes aren’t directly recorded. They are a calculated measure of the temperature AND the dewpoints. If you don’t look at the Dewpoints you will never know how hot it actually felt.

There is a HUGE difference between 2 days of heat indexes of 130 degrees, with actual temperatures only topping out at 99
than there is with a 20 day heatwave in which the temperature and index only get up to 100 or 110 even.

130 from as a result of dewpoints in the 80’s will kill you with in a couple of hours.
A bone dry 100 you can deal with for a few weeks.

It’s the difference between sitting by a fire and locking yourself in a steam room- you simply cant breathe.

So pretty much, I haven’t looked up any of those other heatwaves that the guy is showing so i cant be the ultimate judge, but while the facts may be credible, the things he is implying are totally false and highly misleading to the point where, in the current heat wave, some[moron]one could conceivably make life threatening decisions based off of that info.